Citigroup Hires Ex-White House Budget Director Peter Orszag

Former Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag. (Reuters)

Financial giant Citigroup (C), which received the largest bailout among US banks during the credit crisis, announced Thursday the hiring of former White House budget director Peter Orszag as a vice chairman in its global banking business.

Orszag, who relinquished his role with the Obama administration in July, where he served as director of the Office of Management and Budget, joins Citi’s senior strategic advisory group, a unit that includes some of the New York-based company’s senior bankers focused exclusively on client relationships.

“Peter brings a tremendous amount of knowledge as well as key private sector and government experience to Global Banking,” Citi CEO of International Client Group John Havens said in a statement. “His expertise in economic policy will complement our Investment Banking franchise around the world.”

The new hire will continue as a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, a position he took up after leaving the government.

Prior to his cabinet-level position, where he oversaw the administration’s budget policy and coordinated the implementation of major policy initiatives throughout the federal government, Orszag, 41, served as the director of the Congressional Budget Office.

Previously, he served as the Joseph A. Pechman senior fellow and deputy director of economic studies at the Brookings Institution, and was a special assistant of economic policy to former president Bill Clinton.

Orszag, who studied economics at both Princeton University and the London School of Economics, is no stranger to the private sector, having founded and sold an economics consulting company.

Due to his past experience in the public sector, though, he will not be allowed to have professional contact with US federal government officials.